In a classical type of theatrical suspension illusion invented in the last century, the audience initially sees a person extending horizontally above the stage supported by front and rear pylons positioned under neck and ankle, respectively. The rear pylon is then removed, but the person remains in the same position extending from only the front pylon, with the rear part of the body apparently in a suspended state, to the amazement and delight of the audience.
This feat has been well known for more than a century and has taken many forms, the pylons being constituted by broomsticks, swords or even water fountains with glass or plastic pillars concealed therein.
A trick of the spectator failure type involving balance is also known and utilizes an "imp bottle" which the magician demonstrates as resting on its side and from which a rod-form weight is surreptitiously removed by the magician when handing the bottle to a spectator who cannot then make the bottle rest on its side.
Many scientific demonstrations involving improbable balance are known. One, for example, utilizes a flat, butterfly-shape blank of single thickness cut from a sheet of paper and having a central, longitudinal axis of symmetry, an elongate body portion extending axially rearward from a head and wing portions extending laterally and forward from opposite sides of the body portion with free end portions of the wings extending only a small distance in front of the head. The butterfly is made to balance in a horizontal plane with the head on a corner edge of a table or similar support, by adhering, with glue, sufficient balance weights to undersides of the free end portions of the wings to counterbalance the rearward extending body and thereby provide a center of gravity, balancing point or fulcrum coincident with the head. As substantially all the body mass still appears to extend rearward of the balancing point, the balance seems so improbable as to provide the illusion that the rearward extending portion of the body is suspended.
However, although the first-described type of classical suspension illusion is effective in the grand scale of a theater stage, as the person is required to wear a rigid, body supporting corset hidden under his clothing with a concealed rigid fastener 20 attached to the pylon which is itself attached by a concealed fitting to the stage, neither the person nor the front pylon will stand close inspection or handling by a spectator which would expose the corset or fastener, destroying the illusion. Thus, the classical form of the suspension illusion is not suitable for use on a magician's table stage close to an audience, nor for spectator participation, as would be required in a trick of the spectator failure type.